For a number of years, electronic systems have been constructed from the assembly of various commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components supported and electrically connected by one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs). Increased demands for smaller form factor and weight, and reduced cost and power have led to a number of other, more modern approaches for constructing electronic systems. Examples of these more modern approaches include system-on-chip (SoC) in which the components of a system are integrated into a single integrated circuit (IC) (sometimes referred to as a “chip”), and system-in-package (SiP) in which a number of chips are integrated in a single package. Three-dimensional (3D) IC is another approach in which multiple layers of components are integrated both horizontally and vertically into a single chip.
While SoC, SiP and 3D IC approaches have achieved a smaller form factor and weight, and reduced cost and power, they pose certain challenges for builders of such systems for certain applications. This is particularly true of systems built for high-performance radio frequency (RF) applications. Therefore, it may be desirable to have a system package that addresses the aforementioned limitations.